HR Intern Review

To me, the scheme was everything that I could have asked for, the combination of excellent people in line with an excellent company was perfect to develop my skills within the HR Sector. The people within the department were amazingly helpful and whatever question or query I had, someone would be able to answer it instantly and without hesitation. The programme enabled me to gain an insight into how the HR works within Computacenter and should a further opportunity rise in the future, I would be more than happy to go back.

Collegues around me, including my Line manager, Future Talent Dept. and Learning and Development all were happy to take me in and allow me to complete tasks with full trust despite my lack of knowledge and then help me regardless. Within 1 or 2 days I had managed to create an established network of collegues and friends and this was one of the main reasons that the work experience was so good.

My lack of knowledge meant that I would have felt like a lot of a burden at the beginning of the placement. However through the first couple of days I was taken into a lot of meetings, discussing the culture and the day to day workings of the business, this foundation was then built on furthermore through constant catch ups from head of departments and guided me throughout any enquiry that I may have had.

The days were perfect for me, this was my first role within a workplace and for the first few days it felt like a lot, however once I realised that this was the norm for any workplace, I established my own workload, asking for tasks as and when I needed or wanted them, and also was allowed the freedom to create my own meetings and own tasks as seen fit. In conclusion, I felt like I was busy yes, however not overworked or stressed at all.

My role within Computacenter was mainly to support the existing employees throughout their day to day roles, I completed a lot of tasks which contained a lot of value, handling confidential information, handling information forms from their corporate website and aiding in their learning and development really meant I had the responsibility I needed, but not so much that it put pressure on me.

The main developed skills revolves around business etiquette. Attendance, Dress Code, Formality, Communication. Which in some places I lacked in at the time, however had no way of reflecting this. Within a couple of weeks I had become the ideal Businessman, using language which I never knew before in a professional manner. The training I received was mainly around how to get one step ahead of people in meetings and interviews, which set me up very well for the future. In terms of beyond this, I learnt a lot of business terminology revolving around the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD), which is the main qualification I am looking to gain in the next couple of years

The atmosphere was formal enough to represent the office environment, however their was elements of fun and lax which I never imagine would be in an office, their was a lot of room for socialising with people, about work or not.

The HR Team had roughly planned out some activities in which to partake in during my time at Computacenter, however they admitted due to the lack of time in which they had to plan they wish they could have done more. There was a 3 day period from the time in which I was enrolled to the time in which I arrived at Computacenter, there was definitely a lot more set up, however from the comments that some of the employees were making they believed themselves that there was more to have done.

The main focus of the time at Computacenter was to diverse my workplace skills, and everyone had their best input in getting some of the skills required in the workplace learned and developed. The time in which the HR Director took out of his busy day to take me to meetings with him showed how much the company invested their time and assets for me .

Although at the time Computacenter were not able to keep me on, any opportunity within their HR Dept. would not go a miss to me, the range of people and the sector of the organisation in which I was in seem very appealing to any opportunities of employment in the future.

The industrial placement students had started around the same time as me, meaning that I had someone who had around the same amount of experience with me to enjoy the journey with, the students always made time for a coffee and were always at lunch at the same time, promoting a really humble atmosphere

The costs of living and socialising were not something in which I had a look at, however from the opinions of others they claimed that the living costs were not too high in comparison to the wages in which they were being paid.

The Office is right outside London, with a short train journey it would be very easy to go into town and enjoy the nightlife, although I never really experienced this, it is something that others rated very highly.

the placement students used a lot of time outside of work to socialise in sports etc. My placement was not long enough to fully experience this, however the amount of opportunities that were around and offered to me were diverse, different and something I would really like to get involved in the future with should I return to CC